Marketing Management

 Marketing begins and ends with the customer value proposition whether it’s clients, strategic partners, funders/investors,  public policy officials, and other stakeholders. Moreover, an organization needs to know where it is currently positioned relative to its competition and clarify and strengthen its positioning where appropriate. Lastly, marketing involves clearly understanding what your organization is best at and leveraging this information to grow your impact and differentiate itself in a smart fashion. We use the work of Philip Kotler and Peter Drucker to inform our approach to this topic.

Assessment Questions: What is our product (program)? Who are our customer(s)? How are our customer groups segmented? How do we target these customer segments? What are the value propositions of each segment? How good are we at delivering on these value propositions? What makes us relevant to these customer groups? Can we demonstrate then impact of our programs on our clients? How do customers access our product and is this the best distribution strategy? How often do we conduct customer satisfaction surveys or focus groups and do we proactively and positively act on this information? Who are our competitors? How are they positioned? How can we best compete against this competition? How are we differentiated from other like-minded nonprofits– what makes us unique? What market opportunities exist in the short term? What are some long-term opportunities? What is our biggest market threat? Do we understand the market economics and can leverage this to our benefit?

Intervention: A comprehensive marketing plan that addresses the above listed questions in detail and best positions the organization for smart growth.

Miscellaneous: Marketing investments can be a hard sell in most organizations, especially when it comes to hiring the right talent. The reason is that most organizations get caught in an opportunity cost mindset and stick to quick fix strategies because of the pressure of short-term deadlines and vagaries of working capital and funding. None of these concerns are invalid, but the key is to take a more proactive long-term view of their market situation. However, all marketing investments should be continually tracked and evaluated to monitor their effectiveness. In addition, in a marketplace as highly competitive and fragmented as the nonprofit marketplace, it is important to position your organization wisely to ensure long-term sustainability.

Approach:

• Review and assessment of any marketing materials or market research conducted over the past 3-5 years including customer satisfaction measurement tool (1) In the absence of any useful customer feedback data, it may be necessary to design and administer a survey tool to collect some baseline data
• Review and assess development plan/activities of the organization including past performance over a 3-5 year time period 
• Conduct 1:1 interviews with key board, leadership, management and program staff 
• Facilitate a dialogue around SWOT assessment and Drucker Foundation’s Nonprofit Self Assessment Tool 
• Conduct stakeholder satisfaction survey with representatives from constituencies who either indirectly benefit or fund the organization 
• Create a cross-functional marketing team to assess marketing efforts on an on-going basis 
• Review the relevancy and efficacy of existing programs and services relative to competing alternatives in the marketplace 
• Review and assess the economics of the marketplace to uncover potential leverage opportunities 
• Create a marketing plan that best positions the organization to take advantage of current industry dynamics while also factoring in future opportunities and market changes